Tag: Physics

Installation and Preliminary Use of Lunt Solar Telescope at Pine Mountain Observatory

Presenter: Nico Tuton-Filson – Physics

Co-Presenter(s): Jackson Robinson

Faculty Mentor(s): Scott Fisher

Session: (In-Person) Poster Presentation

Pine Mountain Observatory (PMO) has been operated by the University of Oregon for many years, recently expanding with new fields of observation, such as solar observation. Through our partnership with the Allan Price Science Commons & Research Library, our lab acquired a solar telescope in early 2021. This is the first solar telescope to be installed at the observatory, and therefore our lab team is learning how to best utilize this new equipment. Our end goal is to capture live images of solar activity and share them online in real-time. Through independent research and preliminary data collection, we have worked towards finding the optimal procedure for capturing and processing images. By the end of the summer 2022 we will be finalizing the installation and automation of the telescope and its image processing system. This work is vital to the University because it will create new research opportunities for future undergraduate students and provide an online resource to be used in classrooms at UO and beyond.

Using machine learning to classify bacterial species from fluorescent image data

Presenter: Noah Pettinari – Physics

Faculty Mentor(s): Raghuveer Parthasarathy

Session: (In-Person) Oral Panel—Uniquely Their Own

The study of host-microbe interactions has been of growing interest in recent years, with new research highlighting their importance in ecology, human health, developmental biology, and immunology. Fluorescent imaging of larger multispecies bacterial communities within the host microbiome is generally limited to one species per fluorescent channel, greatly limiting the ability to image several species simultaneously. Additionally, the creation and integration of new fluorophores is a slow and labor intensive process, further limiting the use of fluorescent imaging. We assess an algorithm for classifying two bacterial species in vitro within one fluorescent channel using machine learning techniques on morphology data. We then applied this machine learning model to bacterial communities in the rotifer gut, testing new algorithms for removing unwanted autofluorescence along the way.

The Pine Mountain Observatory Deep Field

Presenter: Ellis Mimms – Physics

Faculty Mentor(s): Scott Fisher

Session: (In-Person) Oral Panel—Uniquely Their Own, Poster Presentation

The Hubble Space Telescope is a telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit as part of international cooperation between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the European Space Agency (ESA). Weighing over 10,886 kilograms and containing a 2.4 diameter meter mirror, it is one of the largest, most versatile space telescopes in the world and one of the most renowned. While Hubble has been used to observe many different celestial objects and phenomena, one of the most famous pieces of data to come from it is known as the Hubble Deep Field Image. For 10 straight days in 1995, Hubble stared at a tiny, nearly empty patch of sky near the Big Dipper. The telescope gathered all the light it could, slowly building the picture that would come to be known as the Hubble Deep Field Image. This image, showing a sliver of our early universe, contains over 3,000 galaxies, large and small, shapely and amorphous, burning in the depths of space. With the Pine Mountain Observatory Deep Field (PMODF), we have created our own deep field image, instead imaging the central region of the Coma Cluster to determine how many galaxies we can detect within it. With our data, we have been able to determine to what magnitude the telescopes at Pine Mountain can see into space. Collecting around 10 hours of data, The Pine Mountain Observatory Deep Field represents some of the deepest imagery taken at Pine Mountain Observatory to date.

The mechanics of pressurized thin shells with varying geometries.

Presenter: Alena Mcvicker – Physics

Faculty Mentor(s): Jayson Paulose, Saul Sun

Session: (In-Person) Poster Presentation

The mechanics of thin elastic shells underpins the structural behavior of ping pong balls, bacterial cell walls, and the outer protein capsules of viruses. Thin shell mechanics is determined by two separate areas of math and physics: the geometry of two-dimensional surfaces and the elasticity of continuum materials. One way to probe these effects experimentally is using indentation: poking a shell with a known force and measuring the displacement. Using geometry and elasticity, we can predict the responses of different shells based on many factors. Indentation studies give us a better understanding of their mechanics and the ability to build off the knowledge to develop tools for diagnostics. With this broad understanding of the project, my contribution is based on the fabrication of thin shells with specific geometries and then the measurement of the indentation of these shells. The goal is to show whether experimental measurements will reproduce theoretical results from the Paulose group. This research is comprised of two integral parts. First, we will fabricate shells with defined ellipsoidal geometries (shaped like M&Ms or footballs). To do so I will design molds in the desired shapes and get them 3d-printed at the UO Technical Science Administration. We then use a steel plate and base to hold down the shell which allows us to pressurize the shells. Through these methods we can see that thin shells have counterintuitive reactions to pressurization seen in their geometry.

Dark Quarks Detection via Magnetic Dipole Interaction

Presenter: Chester Mantel − Physics

Faculty Mentor(s): Graham Kribs

Session: (In-Person) Oral Panel—Uniquely Their Own

Fermionic dark matter could arise from a strongly interacting dark sector. Dark quarks are bound into neutral composite dark baryons, which can be probed by direct detection experiments through a magnetic dipole interaction. We consider theories where the strong interaction consists of Nc colors, where Nc is odd and large, and place bounds on the parameter space of the theory using direct detection and cosmological constraints.

Spectroscopic Study of Squaraine Molecule Aggregate Formation for use in Solar Cells

Presenter: Laura Leibfried – Chemistry, Physics

Faculty Mentor(s): Cathy Wong

Session: (In-Person) Poster Presentation

Using organic photovoltaic (OPV) devices to harvest solar energy is uniquely enticing as they allow for mass manufacture, greater accessibility, and extraordinary chemical tunability. This study aimed to investigate a class of organic dyes called squaraines (SQs) which are potential donor molecules in OPVs and form molecular aggregates, affecting their electronic structure and energy transfer dynamics. Spatially encoded transient absorption was used to study restructuring SQ films during thermal annealing to reveal how the extent of aggregation affects exciton dynamics. Rapid and verging on total energy transfer from the targeted excitation of monomer molecules to aggregates is observed and dynamics are replicated by a kinetic model that evolves as a function of annealing temperature and the consequent extent of aggregation. Results indicate potential exciton trapping as a consequence of rapid energy transfer to optically darker states, which could imply less effective exciton diffusion in OPVs with only partially aggregated SQ donor domains.

Radiation Trapping in Alkali Atoms

Presenter: Samuel Karlson − Physics

Faculty Mentor(s): Brian Patterson

Session: (Virtual) Oral Panel—Inner Space and Internet

We used a Monte Carlo computer algorithm to simulate the effects of radiation trapping in a potassium vapor cell with nitrogen and helium buffer gases. Understanding the effects of radiation trapping is important in applications such as the creation of gas lasers or the validation of atomic models. For example, the impacts of radiation trapping are significant when scaling diode-pumped alkali lasers (DPAL) to high powers. Simulations were made for buffer gas pressures as high as 1000 torr and cell temperatures as high as 200°C. A variety of cell geometries was studied. We used experimental data to validate our simulations. In the experiment, a femtosecond laser pulse excited potassium atoms along the D2 absorption line and the resulting fluorescence was observed as a function of time. An exponential fit of these points determined the excited state lifetime. A comparison of the statistical model and experimental results will be discussed.

Analysis of RadioXenon Using Trap and Trace Analysis

Presenter(s): Piper Gray – Physics

Faculty Mentor(s): Michael Shaffer

Session: (Virtual) Oral Panel—Inner Space and Internet

This project examines the use of atom trap and trace analysis for measuring the proportion of radioactive Xenon isotopes to stable Xenon in an air sample. Radioactive Xenon is not naturally occurring, so the presence of radioactive Xenon indicates artificial nuclear fission activity. Xenon and its radioactive isotopes are typical by-products of all three major types of special nuclear material (SNM): plutonium, uranium-233, and uranium-235. It is also a by-product of nuclear reactors and medical applications. Each process produces radioactive Xenon at different concentrations, so it is essential to determine the exact proportion. The proposed method will trap individual atoms of Xenon using laser cooling and trapping technologies, and they will fluoresce as they relax from the excited state to the ground state. The frequency at which Xenon atoms are trapped and fluoresce is unique to specific isotopes and will be used to identify the atoms contained in an air sample. The laser frequencies which will trap the radioactive isotopes of Xenon are not yet identified. This project will determine these frequencies using atom trap and trace analysis (ATTA) assisted laser spectroscopy and scanning the laser across frequencies until the Xe radioisotope fluoresces. This process will augment the current methods and help determine the concentration of radioactive Xenon in the sample with greater precision.

Progress Towards Single-Photon Time-of-Flight Imaging

Presenter(s): Kevin Eckrosh — Physics

Faculty Mentor(s): Brian Smith, Markus Allgaie

Session: (In-Person) Oral Panel—Uniquely Their Own

An array of fibers with different lengths are fused into a single output fiber. A photon-counting detector is used to record the arrival time of photons incident on the array, allowing to reconstruct which fiber the photons entered. This scheme allows us to measure the spatial light distribution of single photons.

Electron Diffraction in a Scanning Electron Microscope

Presenter : Alexander Schachtner

Mentor : Benjamin McMorran

Major : Physics

Poster 4

We use focused ion beam nanofabrication to manufacture forked diffraction gratings capable of producing electron beams with helical wavefronts and orbital angular momentum (OAM). A vast number of unique beam modes carrying OAM can be produced through manipulation of grating fork number or position. Generally these gratings are milled such that they produce a phase shift in the beam and are used with high energy electrons (300keV) in a TEM to investigate the quantum or magnetic properties of the electron or image magnetic materials. Our latest work focuses on manufacturing gratings that produce only an amplitude shift, which opens up imaging capability to lower energy electrons (5-30 keV) and thus expands their use to a wider range of commercially available SEMs. We use these amplitude gratings to show the relationship between the number/position of forks and OAM inherited by the beam. This work could lead to advances in imaging capability, and also creates a widely accessible and scalable demonstration of the quantum properties of the electron which can be leveraged by any science program with SEM access.